The Howell Blessings

Kelly Dot went to Guatemala on a medical missions trip and ministered to many people medically. She took wonderful photos which she has posted on her Facebook account. (I may go steal some for my blog). Kelly also brought back a few gifts and we just received a package in the mail today!! Dave received coffee grown in the volcanic mountains, packaged beautifully in Guatemalan fabric. I received 3 large pieces of spun fabric, which I will have to contemplate carefully what to make with it, as I don't dare waste it on something frivolous. And Jenn received a small zippered purse bag with beautiful woven fabric. Thank you Kelly Dot for such thoughtfulness and wonderful gifts!!

It amazes me how God can use the simplest things in life to teach me lessons. A couple of weekends ago I was playing Hide and Seek with my nephew and he asked me to "hide" with him. So we went to hide while Uncle Dave was left to seek. We went into my nephews bedroom and it was dark, a perfect spot to hide. We then proceeded to drape a quilt from his bed over our heads so that we couldn't be "found". As our "seekers" came near the bedroom door, and snickers from under our quilts suddenly quieted, the door opened then closed. Our seekers left without finding the searched for "hiders". As you read this you may think we were very clever "hiders". What you may not know is, my nephew is in a wheel chair that is too big to fit into his closet or any tight or small space, so our hiding was in the middle of his bedroom floor with wheels, feet, and most of my body fully exposed to our seekers. Our seekers were gracious enough to play a...

Laurie, my sister sent me these. In case you can't tell, it is the 80's. Jenny was born in 1984 and Mike in 1985. This was Christmas at my parents house. Dad made Jenn a rocking chair and Mike a rocking horse. Jenn also has a home made dolly from her Aunt Donna. I think she still has it somewhere today. I have to brag, I had cute babies. Now I have wonderful adult children that make me proud.

We're missing Rick's 3, no 4, oldest kids and Tim's family. Mom is in all of our hearts. This is my family after we've all stuffed ourselves silly eating a Thanksgiving feast at Rick and Donna's house. This is also the official kick-off of the holiday season. I wish all of you some of the best times and fondest memories. In the midst of the bustle, don't forget the One who we are celebrating.

Ryan "dancing" in his wheelchair Striding and Riding Jenn giving the ole rabbit ears behind Ryan Rick, Ryan and Donna walking in front of us Some of the walkers Before the event started All ages came to support loved ones and MDA Jenn in her t-shirt and button Little ones came for the adventure too Face painting to show support (it's suppoed to be a web and Ryan's name)

A single hummingbird amazingly sits still while feeding. The perched hummingbird defended his spot, which was the entire feeder, all day. He chased off several other birds as they would attempt to come in to feed. I captured this split second shot right before the defending bird chased off his intruder. The other birds took advantage of the freqent chases to come and take a few sips before they got caught. Wow, it's been fun watching the little tiny, and territorial, hummingbirds this summer. I have a feeder just outside our sunroom window. One rainy Sunday afternoon I sat for a couple of hours with my camera poised and captured some pretty neat shots of the chases and steals this day of the numerous hummingbirds that came to feed, or tried to feed. I must have taken 50 or so pictures this Sunday afternoon, many of which turned out blurry because these tiny and fascinating creatures fly so fast! I thought I'd share just a few of my favorite pictures.. Enjoy.

We've had quite the flurry of activity this spring and summer. To our knowledge we've had at least 4 new deer families. One mama deer would "drop her baby off" every morning and then pick it back up in the afternoon. The beautiful fawn would eat for a little bit (yes in my gardens) then lay quietly all day waiting for mom's return. Later on we had a mama and her twin fawns. We got to watch those fawns grow up and begin to loose their spots. Now the twins show up without mama. Just recently we've been host to a mama and her triplets. We've only seen them a few times. The most recent is a mama and her twins. We are wondering if this may be the mama with triplets but may have lost one. This mama has some serious injuries to her leg and chest, yet we caught her playing "get 'cha" with her fawns a few weekends ago, even though it was obvious that she was in pain by the limping when she walked and the big gash on her leg and chest. Thought I'd ...